Inventing the ENIAC
Ever wonder how those tiny handheld smartphones and computers came into our lives? It is all thanks to John Mauchly and J. Presper Eckert. They both played a major role in inventing the ENIAC, the first computer known to man. The ENIAC has had a massive effect on our lives today.
Inventing the ENIAC Inventing the ENIAC was a long and tedious process. The idea of creating a thing like the ENIAC came up in 1939, when John Mauchly and John Atanasoff met together to discuss it. It wasn't until 1942 when the blueprints were made by Mauchly and his new accomplice, J. Presper Eckert. Later that year the US government funded project ENIAC, with a budget of $500,000 (penn). Not much information of ENIAC was recorded from the process. The massive computer was not given coolers until 1945, when it caught fire. Finally, on February 14, 1946, it was announced to the public. The ENIAC did not get its rightful recognition until 1996, on the fiftieth anniversary. The entire process took about 5 years, and at the end they didn't even get proper respect for it.
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ENIAC stands for Electronic Numerical Integrator And Calculator. Project ENIAC took place in Pennsylvania in 1942-1946. It was only expected to cost $150,000, but ended up costing over $400,000 more. The ENIAC itself weighed over 30 tons (60,000 pounds), taking up 2000 square feet of floor space. It had over 6,000 mechanical switches, 18,000 vacuum tubes and large coolers constantly blowing cool air to prevent a fire (invention). Project ENIAC was funded by the US government and kept private until 1946. After that, the ENIAC greatly helped advance
6. web site: women in science/ women in computer science/ women involved in ENIAC program.
In the fifties, computers were in the experimental stage they were extremely hard to work with, and were a constant technicians worst nightmare, because often enough you had to replace the fuses (s Appendix a).
In 1953 it was estimated that there were 100 computers in the world. Computers built between 1959 and 1964 are often regarded as the "second generation" computers, based on transistors and printed circuits - resulting in much smaller computers. 1964 the programming language PL/1 released by IBM. 1964 the launch of IBM 360. These first series of compatible computers. In 1970 Intel introduced the first RAM chip. In 1975 IBM 5100 was released. In 1976 the Apple Computer Inc. was founded, to market Apple I Computer. Designed to Stephen Wozinak and Stephan Jobs. In 1979 the first compact disk was released around 1981 IBM announced PC, the standard model was sold for $2,880.00.
...) - “John W. Mauchly and the Development of the ENIAC Computer.” Penn Library Exhibitions. http://www.library.upenn.edu/exhibits/rbm/maucly/jwm6.html
to replace the IBM machine. In the 1960s and the 1970s IBM came out quickly and built a
Following shortly after Z3, Britain's Colossus in 1943 and two years later America came up with another system ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer)
The conclusion of the Second World War and the commencement of the "Commercial Computing" age seem to go hand in hand (Ceruzzi 13). During this era, a number of American women fell in line with the "Rosie the Riveter" stereotype and entered the work force to take the place of the men who were sent overseas to fight in the war. Meanwhile, the University of Pennsylvania was beginning the ENIAC project, working to build a computer that would run ballistic calculations for the army.
Prior to the revolution in technology that was microprocessors, making a computer was a large task for any manufacturer. Computers used to be built solely on discrete, or individual, transistors soldered together. Microprocessors act as the brain of a computer, doing all mathematics. Depending on how powerful the machine was intended to be, this could take weeks or even months to produce with individual components. This laborious task put the cost of a computer beyond the reach of any regular person. Computers before lithographic technology were massive and were mostly used in lab scenarios (Brain 1).
The First Generation of Computers The first generation of computers, beginning around the end of World War 2, and continuing until around the year 1957, included computers that used vacuum tubes, drum memories, and programming in machine code. Computers at that time where mammoth machines that did not have the power our present day desktop microcomputers. In 1950, the first real-time, interactive computer was completed by a design team at MIT. The "Whirlwind Computer," as it was called, was a revamped U.S. Navy project for developing an aircraft simulator.
The fist computer, known as the abacus, was made of wood and parallel wires on which beads were strung. Arithmetic operations were performed when the beads were moved along the wire according to “programming” rules that had to be memorized by the user (Soma, 14). The second earliest computer, invented by Blaise Pascal in 1694, was a “digital calculating machine.” Pascal designed this first known digital computer to help his father, who was a tax collector. Pascal’s computer could only add numbers, and they had to be entered by turning dials (Soma, 32). It required a manual process like its ancestor, the abacus. Automation was introduced in the early 1800’s by a mathematics professor named Charles Babbage. He created an automatic calculation machine that was steam powered and stored up to 1000 50-digit numbers. Unlike its two earliest ancestors, Babbage’s invention was able to perform various operations. It relied on cards with holes punched in them, which are called “punch cards.” These cards carried out the programming and storing operations for the machine. Unluckily, Babbage’s creation flopped due to the lack of mechanical precision and the lack of demand for the product (Soma, 46). The machine could not operate efficiently because technology was t adequate to make the machine operate efficiently Computer interest dwindled for many years, and it wasn’t until the mid-1800’s that people became interested in them once again.
The Whirlwind computer had a video display that was controlled interactively by a light gun. The display attracted users much more than computer code. The Whirlwind computer became the basis for SAGE (Semi-Automatic Ground Environment), a defense command-and-control system developed for the Air force. In the 1960s Ivan Sutherland’s MIT doctoral thesis introduced a Sketchpad interactive drawing system, which established the theoretical groundwork for computer graphics software (Machover 14). In the mid-1960s, computer graphics was booming in private industry. General Motors had released DAC-1 a computer-aided design system, and Itek developed the Digigraphics electronic drafting machine. By the late 1960s the first storage-tube display terminals appeared, shortly followed by direct-view storage tube display terminals (DVST) which cost thousands of dollars; however this was an improvement to the tens to hundreds of thousands spent initially for display systems. In the 1970s Turnkey systems emerged, beforehand users had to develop software to make their hardware work however turnkey systems provided a haven to users from software issues. Bit-mapped raster displays developed as memory...
In todays world computers are very useful because there is weather forcasting and many other things. People can forcast weather by this process by computers . Advertising is one of the most progressive field these days . Computer animation is the art of creating moving images by this use of computers . We can use use internation network (internet) to check mail, play games, find other's addresses , etc. Scientists also use computers for their experiments . There are some documents to type. For example MS Word , MS Exel , etc . We can do our school project also by using computers. There is one thing which is very conveinient for us it is that we can talk or chat with people who are in another country by using google talk , yahoo messenger , etc . It is not at all expensive . It is better than using a telephone or a mobile . We can also send voicemails through google talk , yahoo messenger , etc . We can play many games using a computer . For example pinball , soltaire , spider soltaire , etc . Believe it or not, but the age of computers is upon us. I believe Computers are not only here to stay, but in my opinion computers are the wave of the future. Only a device like the computer can change the way we work, live, and think. I see computers taking us places where no man has gone before. students can receive an education from their own home Taking classes online is an option that a growing number of students are taking advantage of. These classes are making a college education available for students who are not able to attend a traditional university or college. Computers are taking us places where a lot of us thought was not possible. Truly it is my belief and opinion, the computer is one of the most incredible inventions of this time period or any other.
In 1937 the electronic computer was born. Computers were in 1943 to break “the unbreakable” German Enigma codes. 1951 introduced the computer commercially. However, it wasn’t until around 1976 when the Apple II was introduced and it was immediately adopted by high schools, colleges, and homes. This was the first time that people from all over really had an opportunity to use a computer. Since that time micro processing chips have been made, the World Wide Web has been invented and in 1996 more than one out of every three people have a computer in their home, and two out of every three have one at the office.
The late 20th century has successfully witnessed the boom of sophisticated technology, which gave birth to a wide range of technological outcomes, including computer technology. Computer technology, that is a skill to manage information, communicate and a kind of entertainment media, has become an important part in modern life at work, in recreation and social networking. Whether computer technology is better or not is a complicated issue. There are different arguments that need to be examined. Most people support that computer technology is better for individual lifestyles. It improves quality of working and study, provides a wide range of entertainment and is a wonderful tool of communication. On the other hand, others believe that computer
UNIVAC, which is short for Universal Automatic Computer, was released in 1951 and was first developed by J. Presper Eckert and John Mauchly. The UNIVAC was an electrical computer containing thousands of vacuum tubes that utilizes punch cards and switches for inputting data and punch cards for outputting and storing data. The UNIVAC later released the UNIVAC II and III with various models. Many of these models were only owned by a few companies or government agencies. The UNIVAC I was the first American computer designed for business use. It was mass-produced, marketed and sold commercially, thus creating the industry for Computers. Though it was not mass produced by our standards today since only 46 of the UNIVAC I were installed. Still for this time, this was a first. And UNIVAC became the forerunner for the computer industry we know today. The First UNIVAC came online for the U.S. Government's Census Bureau. The first commercial customer to purchase a UNIVAC was the Prudential Insurance Company. Besides being the first commercially marketed computer, the UNIVAC was the computer t...